themaninblack

Sad news, but it was inevitable at such an age. Good innings and all that. EDIT: Argh! Not on my team(s). Surprised he died before Harry Patch to be honest. RIP to a unique man with such an incredible life. Only 3 points though...

These 'World's Oldest' men don't hang on to their titles for very long do they?

True... Walter Cronks Out?

He does have his own thread on the 2009 picks section y'know...

Billie Holiday died 50 years ago today...

Gifted West Bromwich Albion and Real Madrid footballer Laurie Cuningham died in a car crash on 15th July 1989...

I don't think Harston will go on to win the Tour de France 7 times in succession though...

6 months, that's all we ask...

It was of course followed up by the announcement in The Times that le Mesurier had 'conked out'...

Not so much an interesting way to die, more an interesting way to be buried... Now I've heard of cutting corners, but this?

Happy 40th Birthday Whitehouse, here's a celebratory picture... (It was going to be another 'Whitehouse' picture but I wasn't allowed to...)

It would be very tidy, though. Not as tidy as a world with just gay men...

Hopefully he'll hang on till 2010. The stories have been so conflicting about him, that's I left him off my DDP for this year...

Should be in the Time Added thread...

I find it ironic that in the week when the very existence of men has been questioned, with many suggesting that a world without men is considered 'a good thing', we've had stories this week in which two sports stars have allegedly been murdered by their wives/girlfriends and one where a young lad was murdered after being deliberately led on by his supposed 'girlfriend' into a trap... Mind you, in a world without men, there be no-one for women to murder/plot against...

That's a shame. I saw him in a programme in March about the day Callaghan's government fell in a Confidence Motion vote and he seemed OK, if a little older... RIP Donald...

Depends on your view on 'significant' - JP2 and RR were expected, so I wouldn'd class them as significant deaths. MJ's certainly wasn't expected, and I wold probably class that one as significant. Three Four significants in one post. Howzat Mono? Well my definition of "significant" in this context of deaths is multi-faceted. The amount of influence one had on the world in one's life is one factor, another factor is the manner of death and how shocking it is, another factor is does the death cause a change of leadership/influence in whatever sphere of influence they had. I don't have a formula down pat to "measure" the significance of deaths but I just go with my gut and try to be as diverse as possible taking into account all political, religious, celebrity, scientific, etc. deaths in a given year/decade. In that sense I would say one can make a strong case that Michael Jackson's death was more significant than Ronald Reagan's but not more than Pope John Paul II in this decade. Ronald Reagan was a person who had a tremendous impact on the world, particularly in the 1980's, he was in a sense and icon of the 1980's just like Michael Jackson just political instead of music/celebrity. However Reagan was a former President, had alzhiemer's disease for a decade, was 93 years old and expected to die for years, thus the news was plastered with coverage for about a week after his death until his funeral but it was all about his legacy, there was no shock nor an ongoing discussion about how he died or what will happen to his "empire" like Michal Jackson, Reagan was a former President and thus his death did not cause a change of leadership. Pope John Paul II was in ill health for many years and while his death was not a shock to really anyone his death resulted in a change of leadership in the largest religious denomination in the world. He had a tremendous impact like Reagan if not more so on world events and from his death until the election of Benedict XVI as his replacement the news was covering JPII, his legacy and the Catholic church. I read that Michael Jackson's funeral had one billion viewers worldwide, that is huge but I think I remember that it was even a higher figure for JPII's funeral, not to mention it has been quoted in numerous sources that JPII's funeral was the biggest in world history, with a million plus people clamored in central Rome. His funeral was also one of the largest gathering of world leaders, certainly for a funeral, many countries around the world had days of mourning for his death. So I would say that for the 2000's John Paul II's death was the most significant followed by Michael Jackson and then Ronald Reagan. What is the actual significance of Regan's death? Indeed I would ask this about Thatcher too. Yes, they are prominent figures in recent politcal history (although Regan's impact is somewhat overstated, Dubya will be talked about in future more often than Regan simply for the Iraq War). But their actual 'deaths' have no immediate significance in the world, I would argue. Regan had long since left office when he died, and Thatcher would have to. It's almost twenty years since she resigned from office. When she did, it was seismic. I remember hearing the news well. It was genuinely 'where I was and what I was doing' moment (break time in school as it happens). But when she dies, yes it'll be big news, yes there'll be all sorts of articles and TV programmes about her merits from those who worshipped her and those who despised her. But we had that (albeit without the hindsight) when she resigned, plus the added drama of her successor. That was significant. Jackson died when he was on the verge of a spectacular comeback. The Pope was in office when he died. John Lennon was shot just as he was returning (and goodness knows what fascinating twists and turns in his career we could have had, had he lived). Charles de Gaulle had only just left office in 1970 and still would have left a shadow over French politics in the Seventies. They all still had more to give. But Regan and Thatcher are already part of history and their actual deaths are incidental in the wide scheme of things...

That thesp of thesps, Laurence Olivier died 20 years ago today...

Armstrong will put in a valiant effort, but even at this stage, it's Contador's to lose...

So Hugh Grant is hated by 0.5% of the population...hardly time to get out the axe and that goes for the others. The majority are indifferent and there's a probably equal amount who love them, for whatever reason... I hate surveys. It's that Gallup chap that deserves shoeing!

I understand Dawn French has insisted on being the next one in..... ...although, Archimedes principle of displacement could be put to the test.... Reminds me of that TV play 'Secrets', written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones and starring Warren Mitchell...

If Thatcher pops it, that would put the cat among the pidgeons on this particular subject...

Thanks Ize, I've just signed up for an e-mail alert whenever the good Baron speaks, the deal is they don't alert you more than once a day. Given his track record, I'm not expecting to be spammed. I will - however - share any activity with the DL. Good spot. The Houses Of Parliament have a "Leave Of Absence Register", which lists peers who do not attend the House of Lords. A few of them are quite young and are possibly off on secondment doing other things, but the rest of them are all pretty ancient and are probably not doing their job for health reasons. Strangely Baron Glenamara is not on the list. Useful site that. Hapgood is a pick on the DDP for two teams, so they may well be on to something there...

She's been fighting that cancer for quite a while now and cannot shake it off and we know what happened to Farrah...